Nord Articulated Locomotives in France

Class 701 (Locobase 3885)

Data from Edouard Sauvage, "Four-cylinder Compound Locomotives in France", paper delivered Institute of Mechanical Engineers and reproduced in Railroad Gazette, Volume XXXII,[32] , No 20 (28 September 1900), pp. 629-631, including data in table compiled through direct communications with the various designers; and Gustav Reder (Michael Reynolds, trans), The World of Steam Locomotives (New York: Putnam, 1974).

Designed by English-born Alfred de Glehn and Nord's chief engineer Gaston du Bosquet, this is the first of de Glehn's compound 4-4-0 designs. These were an immediate success when they entered service.

After Du Bosquet's essay in the two-cylinder 0-4-2 proved unsatisfactory (see Locobase 6447), he and de Glehn combined on a divided-drive compound locomotive taken from Francis Webb's London and North Western 2-2-2-0s. Preserving the divided drive for its lower stresses on the driving axles, de Glehn discarded Webb's single large low-pressure cylinder, using two smaller LP cylinders instead. These, mounted outside just ahead of the first driving axle, drove the second axle, while the HP cylinders inside drove the leading set. The Belpaire firebox trailed a steam dome and a large regulator box with pyramidal roof.

They fell short of expectations because the LP cylinder volume was too small to accept all the steam exhausted from the HP cylinders. "Equally," says Reder (1974)," the long outlet pipes caused an undesired back pressure, and like Webb's engines, they tended to slip when starting." In 1892, 701 received a leading bogie and carried on for years in that arrangement.

Class Series 601 (Locobase 3244)

Data from August Perdonnet et Camille Polonceau, Nouveau Portefeuille de L'Ingenieur des Chemins de Fer, Tome Second (Paris: Librairie Scientifique, Industrielle et Agricole, 1866), pp. 530-531. See also "Notes on Old Locomotives: Northern Railway of France", Locomotive Magazine, Volume XXVII [27] (15 December 1921), pp. 327-330.

These unusual locomotives were not articulateds, but duplex-drive engines with six axles in a single frame driven by two sets of cylinders mounted at the ends. Designed by Jules Petier, this was a magnificently ugly machine in many respects. A large preheater lay over the boiler and exhausted out of a curved pipe near the footplate. Out of the regulator, which was perched on top of the whole arrangement like a cupola, came external steam pipes that divided over the second axle on each side to head forward and aft to the steam chests of the cylinders. Exhaust from the cylinders came back through larger external pipes that met over the third axle and headed up to the preheater.

These must have been fascinating engines to watch: the valve motion was arranged outside, the cylinders drove toward the middle from each, the engine was stacked up like some Victorian mansion (and hiding a Belpaire firebox), and the myriad steam joints must have hissed vapor all over.

Even so, they did work, as proved by the Nord's willingness to purchase 10 more in 1867. Their tonnage rating was 280 tons up 1.3% grade at 16.8 mph, which isn't bad for the 1860s.

Class Steam Rail Motor Train (Locobase 16047)

Data from "Steam Rail Motor Train, Northern Railway of France", The Locomotive, Volume XVI (15 November 2015), pp. 251-252.

Providing passenger service to low-traffic branch line usually cost more to run than the revenue it generated for the railroad. One solution pursued by many railways was a small light locomotive permanently linked to one or more carriages. Most such equipages put the locomotive at the front end of a car, but Buffaud-Robatel offered a three-unit train. All three sections measured about the same length with the first-class/second-class carriage ahead and a third-class carriage behind the motor-luggage segment. Altogether, the steam rail motor train measured 84.27 ft (25.69 m) from buffer to buffer.

The 0-2-2 layout put the cylinders and drive train under the stack and ahead of the cab, behind which was the luggage compartment. The boiler held Serve tubes of a smaller than usual diameter and, presumably, commensurately smaller internal fins. The driver's compartment was raised to allow the driver to see ahead of the leading carriage. Duplicating the whistle handles, sandbox gear, regulator, reversing lever, and brake valve allowed the crew to operate the train in either direction.

Second-class passengers led the parade in the front compartment and had a capacity of 14 seated, 6 standing passengers inside, 12 more on the covered platform ahead. Eight first-class passengers sat with no standees to block the view. Behind the motor, the third-class compartment held as many as 28 seated and 12 inside standees with room for 12 more on the covered platform behind.

Locobase doesn't know if this system ever entered service, but notes that the motive power was inevitably limited by its placement in the middle of the train. It wouldn't belong before such service was rendered by trains powered by gasoline or diesel internal-combustion engines.